University of Gadarif

BackgroundHypertension poses a significant global health threat and is associated with several complications, including erectile dysfunction (ED). Currently, there is no published data on the prevalence of ED among hypertensive patients in Sudan. Thus, this study evaluated the prevalence of ED and the associated factors among hypertensive patients in eastern Sudan.MethodsThis cross-sectional study was carried out in Gadarif, Eastern Sudan. Data on demographic characteristics, anthropometrics, blood pressure, results of the International Index of Erectile Function (IIEF-5) questionnaire, and clinical history was obtained. Multivariate binary regression analysis was used.ResultsThree hundred and twelve men with hypertension were recruited. The median (interquartile range [IQR]) age and duration of hypertension were 52.2 (46.0-59.0) years and 5.0 (3.0-7.0) years, respectively. Of the participants, 107 (34.3%) had ED. Of those with ED, 107 men were identified, with 15 (14.0%) experiencing severe ED, 10 (9.3%) experiencing moderate ED, 39 (36.4%) experiencing mild to moderate ED, and 43 (40.2%) experiencing mild ED. Multivariate binary regression revealed that increasing age (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] = 1.13 and 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.07-1.19), increasing duration of hypertension (AOR = 1.24 and 95% CI 1.09-1.40), number of medications (AOR = 2.40 and 95% CI = 1.27-4.55), and being of low income (AOR = 2.26 and 95% CI = 1.10-4.67) were associated with ED. Education level, occupation, presence of comorbidity, tobacco use, or alcohol use were not associated with ED.ConclusionThis study reveals a significant prevalence of ED (34.3%) among men with hypertension in Eastern Sudan, with age, duration of hypertension, number of medications, and low income as key associated factors. This present study emphasizes the importance of integrated screening and management strategies to address both hypertension and ED simultaneously.

Armed conflicts pose severe challenges to healthcare workforce pipelines, with specialized surgical training being particularly vulnerable. The war in Sudan, which began in April 2023, has led to a complex humanitarian crisis, damaging health infrastructure and displacing medical professionals. The impact on postgraduate urological surgical training requires detailed assessment. A national, descriptive quantitative cross-sectional study was conducted from September to December 2024. A structured online questionnaire was distributed to the complete national cohort of urology specialty trainees (n = 40, 100

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder that is marked by a lack of communication skills in social situations and repetitive and stereotypical Behaviors. The most widespread form of diagnosing ASD among children is based on psychological screening test along with monitoring of the Behavioral pattern, especially repetitive Behaviors. Some of these Behaviors include hand-flapping, head banging and spinning which are common among ASD children. In our research, we examine abnormal Behavioral patterns that may reflect ASD through the videos of children engaged in the everyday activities in the unstructured settings. A publicly available multiclass Self-Stimulatory Behavior Dataset (SSBD) is use in classify autistic Behavior. Before training the model, the dataset is thoroughly pre-processed (region-of-interest (ROI) detection and image cropping to eliminate irrelevant background objects). Moreover, information-augmenting methods are used to reduce overfitting and increase training efficiency and generalization effectiveness. In order to obtain spatiotemporal details successfully, a number of deep learning models are tested, such as studied CNN-GRU model, 3D-CNN + LSTM, MobileNet, VGG16, and EfficientNet-B7. The findings of the experiment prove that the proposed CNN-GRU model is superior to all competing methods. The model with a k-fold cross-validation provides a steady accuracy of 0.9284 ± 0.0039-0.9294 ± 0.0038, which means that the model is robust and consistent across the folds. The effectiveness of the proposed approach is additionally justified by the comparisons with state-of-the-art methods. The results show that the systems based on the action recognition can help clinicians monitor the Behavioral trends and facilitate the quick, accurate, and effective screening of ASD. The proposed approach works effectively in predicting Behavior in real-life, uncontrolled videos and shows tremendous potential for real-world clinical implementation as a decision-support tool.

Background: Depression is a leading global cause of disability, increasingly recognized as a systemic condition involving low-grade immune-inflammatory activation and neuroendocrine dysregulation. Although complete blood count (CBC) parameters provide an accessible window into systemic physiology, empirical data from African countries, including Sudan, remain scarce. This study evaluated the associations between peripheral CBC parameters and depressive symptoms among adults in Eastern Sudan. Methods: A multistage community-based survey was conducted in Gadarif in Eastern Sudan. The sociodemographic characteristics and clinical data were collected through a face-to-face interview. Depressive symptoms were assessed through the Patient Health Questionnaire-9. Adults with a PHQ-9 score ≥ 10 were considered to have depressive symptoms. CBC parameters were assessed via venous blood samples using automated hematology analyzers. Multivariable linear regression with continuous PHQ-9 scores was performed. Results: Three hundred and thirty-two adults were enrolled. Of the 332 subjects, 166 (50.0%) adults were males, and 102 (30.7%, 95% CI = 25.7–35.7%) had depressive symptoms. There was a significantly higher median platelet count (308.0 × 109/L vs. 291.5 × 109/L; p = 0.025) and plateletcrit count (0.3% vs. 0.2%; p = 0.028), and a significantly lower hematocrit count (37.7% vs. 38.6%; p = 0.043) in adults with depressive symptoms. In the adjusted multivariable linear regression models, erythrocyte oxygen-carrying parameters remained associated with PHQ-9 scores, including hematocrit (B = −0.355, 95% CI = −0.511–−0.199, p < 0.001) and hemoglobin (B = −0.621, 95% CI = −1.191–−0.051, p = 0.033). Conversely, thrombocyte activation markers were associated with PHQ-9 scores, including mean platelet volume (MPV; B = 1.131, 95% CI = 0.221–2.041, p = 0.015) and total platelet count (B = 0.012, 95% CI = 0.00001–0.024, p = 0.047). Leukocyte profiles showed no association with PHQ-9 scores. Conclusions: Peripheral complete blood count parameters, specifically lower hematocrit and hemoglobin, alongside elevated MPV and platelet count, were associated with depressive symptoms in Eastern Sudan. CBC panels may a be useful inflammatory marker tool to detect the correlations with PHQ-9 scores in resource-limited primary care settings.

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is associated with irreversible and progressive renal dysfunction. Our study aimed to assess whether salivary creatinine can be used as an alternative noninvasive biomarker for serum creatinine. Hence, a case-control study was conducted atAl-Gadarif Hospital for kidney disease in Eastern Sudan. The study included 40 hemodialysis patients as a case group and 40 healthy individuals as a control group. Significantly higher serum and salivary creatinine levels were reported in the case group (10.9 +/- 2.65 mg/dL; 2.2 +/- 1.3 mg/dL) than in the control group (0.88 +/- 0.15 mg/dL; 0.23 +/- 0.14 mg/dL). The serum and salivary creatinine levels were significantly higher in males (8.6 +/- 5.4 mg/dL; 1.7 +/- 1.5 mg/dL) than in females (3.6 +/- 4.2 mg/dL; 0.83 +/- 1.1 mg/dL) in the patient group. Age was significantly correlated with serum (r=0.68, p=0.001) and salivary creatinine (r=0.48, p=0.001) in CKD patients. A significantly strong positive correlation was reported between serum and salivary creatinine. The sensitivity and specificity of salivary and serum creatinine were 100%. Therefore, our study revealed that salivary creatinine may serve as a potential noninvasive biomarker in CKD patients.